The Birthday Tea
by Weasley430
Summary: It wasn't that Hatter didn't mind birthdays...just not his own. He didn't see the point in celebrating it, it was just another day. Short OneShot. -Happy Birthday Andrew-Lee Potts!


A Birthday Tea

**A/N:**

**Happy Birthday Andrew-Lee Potts!**

**You know this I'm sure, but this fanfiction is for Andrew's birthday and it should be quite obvious that I do not own the rights to any of the characters nor the storyline of Alice or Alice in Wonderland.**

**Also, I was inspired to write this by CasyDee who writes some of the best HatterXAlice fanfictions I have ever read! I strongly recommend that you read her stories "Always" and "Forever"**

It wasn't that Hatter hated birthdays. On the contrary, he enjoyed celebrating birthdays very much, just not his own. He had never been truly into it—probably because he spent all of his time selling Tea in his tea shop while "playing both sides of the court" as he had once put it and had never truly been able to enjoy anything, especially not something that only came once a year. This year however, was a different birthday, unlike all the rest. For the first time in a long while, Hatter would not have to be constantly looking over his shoulder as he did what he had to do to survive. The only problem for Hatter was, he wasn't exactly sure how to have one, in truth, he had never actually celebrated one before. The way he had always seen it was just another day, the only difference was that he was another year older, nothing that special about it. Hatter didn't know what everyone got all worked up about when it came to birthdays. However, he was in a brand new world. Perhaps, he could try something new. Maybe, just maybe he could have a "Happy Birthday" for once in his life.

He woke up that morning with a start. Groaning, he reached out from the warm comforters to turn off the alarm clock that seemed to be making his ears bleed. It was 6:30AM, a quite obnoxious time to be up and moving about. When the dark room was silent once again, Hatter found himself sinking back into the comfort of the warm bed. It was too early to get up, sure he had to open up the tea shop downstairs so the staff who would be patiently waiting for him in the crisp autumn air, but by his reasoning he could get away with procrastinating in bed for a few more minutes. After all, the staff would arrive at 7:30 so they could open the shop a half hour later. Hatter wasn't used to being awake at such an obnoxious hour seeing as he normally took the second shift and closed the shop at night. He wouldn't be awake at all if his manager hadn't called in sick the previous night, which resulted in Hatter having to take a double shift on his birthday. Not that he minded much; he had always been working hard his entire life so what was another day to him?

The only thing that irritated him about the situation was that he would not be able to spend any time with Alice as he had originally hoped for. Lifting his head up from the pillow, Hatter turned his head towards the still sleeping mound beside him. It was a miracle that she had slept through the alarm clock at all and Alice was normally a light sleeper. He gently scooted his body closer toward her putting his arm around his sleeping fiancé's waist. Smiling, he breathed in her scent and rubbed his face against her soft hair as it lay gently across her pillow. He couldn't see her in the darkness, but he assumed she looked beautiful, as she always did. This was the only benefit of having to wake up obnoxiously early although she wasn't exactly awake in return. However, just having her beside him was calming enough. Hatter wouldn't lie and say that he didn't worry about her constantly, and it wasn't like she couldn't protect herself but Hatter always felt more relaxed with Alice by his side. He wished that they could spend the day with each other, like he originally wanted. But Alice had to teach at the dojo for the morning then come down to the tea shop to help Hatter, at least then they could be together…even though it wasn't the same as being _alone _together. He had no idea that owning a business was going to be such a hassle, it hadn't been very hard in Wonderland, he had other things to worry about at the time. Alice was a big help with restocking and the numbers portion of owning the business. Hatter then wondered if Alice was even aware that it was his birthday. He realized that he had never actually said anything to her about it so, but Hatter chuckled to himself. What would she do if she did know? She wouldn't have let their manager skip out on work perhaps and maybe she would have taken him somewhere, or perhaps just laid around with him at home—he always enjoyed their at-home activities. Hatter closed his eyes as he listened to her calm breathing.

"Hatter!"

Once again, Hatter woke with a start, however, instead of trying to remain in the warm comforters, he sat bolt upright. Looking over at Alice, he could see her staring at him, stormy blue eyes wide.

"What is it?" Hatter asked, his heart beating rapidly. Alice saying his name in urgency would always make the hair on the back of his head stand up. She however, looked perfectly fine, just extremely confused. Relaxing for a moment, Hatter leaned against the back of the bed and rubbed his face. He had fallen asleep. The surge of adrenaline that had been coursing though his body had been very short lived and once he had discovered that Alice was okay, it had vanished, leaving him far more tired than before. "Wha'time'es'it?" He mumbled.

Alice pointed to the alarm clock on his opposite end. "It's 7:47."

Hatter's blood ran cold. He was late! Bursting out of bed, he scrambled in the rising sunlight to find a pair of pants to throw over his boxers and grabbing the jacket he had thrown on the ground the night previous and ran out of the bedroom, through the tiny living room and down the stairs to the store.

He found her huddled as close as she could to the door of the tea shop. Her face was almost completely covered by her coat as she braced herself against the bone chilling wind outside.

"Isabel, I'm so sorry!" Hatter exclaimed as he burst the door open. Instead of replying, Hatter found himself being practically shoved aside by the small woman to get into the store. Her teeth were chattering.

Hatter felt terrible. He never liked to leave his staff waiting for him, especially in the cold autumn weather. "Let me go make ya a quick cup of tea yeah?"

A few moments later, Hatter found himself opening the store. Isabel was at the counter, sipping her tea quietly as he turned the "Closed" sign to "Open" he shivered slightly, in his rush to get out to Isabel he had forgotten to put a shirt on, and his polyester brown jacket didn't contribute much warmth. Hatter reasoned that he had enough time to get a shirt on and perhaps grab a quick bite to eat upstairs before the morning rush.

As he opened the door upstairs, he found Alice prepared for her morning lesson. Hatter smiled to himself. Her back was to him as she looked through the fridge for something to eat. Coming up behind her, he gently leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She let out a surprised squeal and turned around. Hatter in return, could feel his heart skip a beat. It was quite unusual and rare to sneak up on Alice but whenever he did, her reaction would always make him feel lightheaded or like he was walking on air.

Alice's surprise was short-lived, she smiled and put her arms around Hatter's neck and kissed him in greeting.

She followed him into the bedroom, as he went to go change into clean clothes. Hatter could feel her eyes as they scanned his body hungrily. He smiled to himself as he threw on a white t-shirt and slipped on his brown leather jacket, topping it off with a brown fedora.

"What time are you comin' in today?" He asked as he checked himself in the mirror, slightly tipping his hat to the side. If Hatter was going to have to spend his birthday working, he might as well look forward to the time that Alice was going to work _with _him. If he had one choice when it came to this useless day, it would be that he spend it with her.

She was silent for a moment, as Hatter turned toward her, his face looking over at her expectantly. She eyed him for a moment before sighing deeply. "Actually, I was hoping to not come help today. There are some things that I need to get done."

Hatter could feel himself frown, but other than that his entire body was numb. "Yeah," He said, his voice slightly rising an octave. It wouldn't be an understatement if he had said he was disappointed, but that was life he supposed. After all, he had never told Alice his birthday so he couldn't expect her to not prepare for something she didn't know about. Although, it wasn't like he was asking for a party or anything of that sort. He just wanted to spend time with her. Clearing his throat, he turned slightly and walked out of the room, mumbling, mostly to himself about getting back to work. He wouldn't tell Alice no, even if he wanted to. She was a hard worker and usually did it voluntarily so it was obvious that she would consider it not a problem to show up for one day.

The rest of the day was terrible. As soon as Hatter had gotten down to the store, he learned that the washing machine was broken, and until they got it fixed they would have to wash all of the tea cups by hand. Then, he got a call from his other employee, the one who usually took the second shift with him in the afternoon and evening. She couldn't come to work either, so then Hatter had to break the news to Isabel, who was still quite sore at him for leaving her outside in the cold, that she would have to pull a double shift with him. Isabel was still quite new to the staff and barely knew how to work the register let alone how to prepare the tea the way most of the customers liked it so Hatter had to spend the rest of the day helping Isabel while trying to assist the many people who poured into the store.

By the time Closing time came around that evening, Hatter was tired and sore. His feet dragged behind him as he struggled to get up the stairs. He should have known that his birthday in this world wouldn't be any different than that in Wonderland, in fact, it was worse. He had no idea what he had been assuming it would be like, and it wasn't like he had wanted much. It served him right to just assume things would be different, a birthday wasn't actually special, he thought as he stopped to fumble with the key that would allow him to enter the second story of the house, where Hatter and Alice resided. As he opened the door, his keys fell to the ground swearing slightly he bent down to pick them up, but was quite surprised at what he found beside it.

It was a rose petal. Hatter picked it up and examined it briefly before realizing the floor was covered in them. Standing up, he peeked into the living room. The floor and couch was covered in dark rose petals, while all of the lights were off in the room. Candles covered the mantle and they flickered slightly, giving off and eerie and mystifying glow to the entire room. While slow music gently made its way from the speakers by the television. A fancy china tea cup sat on the coffee table by the couch with a note sitting on top of it. Curiously, he walked over to the coffee table and picked up the note. _Drink Me _it said.

Hesitantly, Hatter picked up the tea cup. Inside it, lay a dark brown liquid still steaming hot. He smelled it. It certainly smelled like tea. Still, he hesitated. What was going on? Looking around a moment, Hatter tentatively took a tiny sip of the tea.

It was fabulous! The warm liquid rushed down his throat and seemed to be throwing a blanket of warmth over his entire body. A surge of energy pulsated though him as he took another sip. As he took another sip, he could feel a pair of hands wrap around his waist.

"Enjoying your Birthday Tea?"

In surprise, Hatter turned around and found himself face to face with Alice. She was smiling as she gently tightened her grip on him. He couldn't help but smile as he realized she was wearing a silk nightdress, a rather new one to be precise. Before he could speak, she kissed him. It was a long kiss, full of passion and heat that Hatter was left almost breathless by the time they broke apart.

"What's going on here?" He managed to get out after a few seconds of recuperation.

Alice smiled. "It's your Birthday surprise."

"How did you know it was me birthday?" Hatter asked as she gently guided him to the couch.

She smiled deviously and shook her head. She wasn't going to tell him anything. Hatter found that he didn't really care. He smiled as he took another sip of tea. It was quite delicious. Alice watched him as hungrily as she had that morning.

After a few moments of silence, Hatter looked over at her, desire burning in her eyes and he assumed his did too. As Alice took his hand. It was going to be an interesting night, and an interesting birthday.


End file.
